Dogs name is Athena. She's approximately 8-10 months old. A friend gave her to me due to his allergies shortly before he died in an accident a little while back. Recently she started dropping weight, and wasn't looking good. So we got her an appointment with the local vet.

By the time they seen her she was looking pretty bad. She had severe weight loss, no appetite, a fever, and alot of mucus that would have to be cleared from her nostrils every day in order for her to breathe. She had pretty much every sign of distemper. The vet just wanted to charge $600 for a few xrays but didn't want to do anything else. Told them just what they could do with their xrays and walked out.

Found another vet the next town over that looked at her, and he had no clue what the problem was, and didn't want to run any test. I mentioned distemper numerous times, and told him that I wanted her tested, but he wouldn't do it because he felt like the test wouldnt wotk since she has been vaccinated. Tried telling him that there are test specifically for dogs that have already had their vaccinations, but he didn't want to listen.

The vet prescribed Ampicillin and Prednisone and just said that that he had no clue if it would have any effect, and that we'd know after the weekend if she was going to die or not.

Within a day or two of taking the medicine she was doing way better, but I knew that it was probably only temporary. Called the vet after the weekend as requested, but they wouldnt set a follow up appointment. Now it's been another week and her pills have ran out. She's starting to look tired again, and I had to start cleaning her nostrils again.

After allot searching, I've read a bit about the Newcastle vaccine, and I'm close to ordering a bottle. I can't keep giving her steroids to mask the real problem, and if she gets the vaccine and it's not distemper, then no harm, and at least I tried.